Franco Piperno

Franco Piperno (1943-) was an Italian communist who was one of the founders of Potere Operaio and a member of Autonomia Operaia during the "Years of Lead".

Biography
Franco Piperno was born in Catanzaro, Calabria, Italy in 1943, and he joined the Italian Communist Party's youth wing while studying at the University of Pisa. In 1969, he was suspected of sabotaging a Boston Chemical plant, which produced Agent Orange defoliant used in the Vietnam War, and he took part in the occupation of the Fiat factory in Turin that same year. In late 1969, with Oreste Scalzone and Toni Negri, he co-founded Potere Operaio, and he later became a member of Autonomia Operaia. In 1981, he was condemned to 10 years in prison for the 1978 kidnapping and murder of former Christian Democracy prime minister Aldo Moro, having been accused of being a negotiator between the Italian Socialist Party and the kidnappers. He lived in exile in France and Canada for many years, and most of the charges were dropped, reducing his sentence to 4 years. He returned to Italy in 1990, and he became active in Cosenza. In January 1996, his car was hit from four handgun bullets, and he survived the assassination attempt. In May 1996, he became a member of the Cosenza city council.